ABSTRACT
Often in policy and programming gender is equated to women. Therefore, this chapter begins laying the foundations of a gender analysis framework with which to identify and highlight the multidimensional nature of gender and the complex ways in which it impacts security. This framework is built from feminist analytical perspectives within international relations studies and will be added to over the next two chapters. First, it introduces analyzing gender as a category, which encourages simply increasing the number of women participants. However, this method does not address the conditions that lead to gender inequality. Then it highlights gender as a power relationship and the struggle between men and women over socio-cultural control. Within the security space men hold a dominant position, therefore resistance is often met when challenging inequality. Finally, it introduces the analysis of gender as a social construction and the gendered divisions and overlaps between public and private spheres and expectations of how people engage in these spheres. These methods of analysis are then applied to the European Union’s Strengthening Resilience to Violence and Extremism in the Horn of Africa program, one of the first countering violent extremism programs to include a focus on the empowerment of women.
